Mallarmé - Stéphane Mallarmé

Japanese: マラルメ - まらるめ（英語表記）Stéphane Mallarmé

A poet who was revered as the mentor of French Symbolist poetry. Born in Paris on March 18th as the son of a Ministry of Finance official. He lost his mother at the age of five and was raised by his maternal grandparents, but later entered a boarding school and experienced the life of an "orphan." His mother's death, along with the memory of his sister Maria, who died young in 1857, left a wound deep in his heart that he would never heal. He began to try writing poetry from the age of 12 or 13, and wrote over 50 poems as a boy that were not published during his lifetime. However, it was his discovery of Poe and Baudelaire in 1857 through the guidance of an older friend that determined the course of his life. In particular, he came under the powerful influence of Baudelaire's "Flowers of Evil" (reprinted) in 1861, and overcame this influence, making it his immediate goal to overcome it and create his own poetry. In 1862, he fled to London with his older mistress Marie Gérard (Maria Gerhard), and married her the following summer.After returning to France, he was appointed English teacher at the Ecole Supérieure de Tournon, and thereafter served as an English teacher at successive provincial economists until he settled in Paris in 1871.However, these eight years, a time of agony, despair, and joy, transformed him into an entirely new poet.

[Matsumuro Saburo]

Early Poetic Style

At first, he used Poe's view of poetry as a springboard to break away from the influence of Baudelaire, and then went beyond Poe to show his own unique "angélisme" (angelism). However, when he established his foothold in the poetic world with his early eleven poems, including the masterpieces "Sea Breeze" and "Sigh," which he contributed to his first Parnasse contemporain (1866), he was in the midst of an unprecedented quest, beginning with the composition of the long poem "Elodiard" in the autumn of 1864, in which he struggled with the national language, which was beyond the poet's control as an individual, and passionately questioned the very existence of the poet, which was compelling him to make a major change in his attitude toward language. His unfinished skit " Igitur " (written in 1869) is a memento of this "fatal" experience. After this serious experience of crisis, from 1871 onwards, he published Hérodiade (written mainly in the spring of 1865, published in 1871), which was a summary of his early poetic style, and Les Afternoons de la Faune (first draft in the summer of 1865, completed in 1876). He also published a series of translations of Poe's poems, including The Raven (1875), while at the same time continuing to work on a group of sonnets which had been born out of the experience of crisis itself. These were published one after another from 1883 onwards, and formed the core of The Poems of Stéphane Mallarmé (1887, 1899), which the author himself personally selected and published twice in his lifetime.

[Matsumuro Saburo]

Later style

The sonnets, which form Mallarmé's late poetry, along with a series of poems in praise of artists, beginning with the long poem "A Funeral Toast" (1873), in which he expressed his own view of life and death by referring to the late poet Gautier, are, as stated in his poetic ode "Prose (for des Essents)" (1885), self-contained word architectures that are carefully constructed while giving the words initiative, and at the same time, the entire series of poems, as a flowering colony of words, embodies the "poet's world" while showing the limit of expression in a single language. After 1885, his literary theories, which crystallized his many years of thought, were published in magazines and newspapers, and these, along with his prose poems, were compiled in "Diversions" (1897). These prose works (which the author himself calls "critical poems"), which take a broad view that extends to performing arts including concerts and Catholic masses, and offer deep insight into the fundamental nature of literature, are direct precursors to contemporary French literature, and the full picture of the issues raised here is finally beginning to become clear.

Moreover, his last major work, Un coup de dés jamais n'abolira le hasard (1897), was an unprecedented attempt to visually fix the inner vibrations of his poetry on the eleven-page spread using a special typesetting and seven types of type, and here the poems acquired a cosmic appearance by acquiring the physical form of a book. Mallarmé was further refining this work and at the same time working towards completing the comprehensive poem cycle The Marriage of Elodiard, which was to be his lifelong theme, when on the afternoon of September 8, 1898, in his study in his villa overlooking the Forest of Fontainebleau across the Seine in Barbin, he suffered a severe attack of laryngeal disease. After the seizure subsided, the poet wrote a "suicide note," and when the doctor came to examine him the next morning, he suddenly died after reenacting the seizure of the previous day, ending his life at the age of 56.

Although the poet's lifelong dream of "the ultimate song (ode)" and "the one and only book to be written, for which the world exists" was naturally left unfinished, his discourse had a profound impact on the youngest members of "Les Mardis" (the Tuesday Circle, a gathering at poets' homes that gradually formed from around 1877) who gathered around him in his later years, including Valéry, Claudel, and Gide, and elicited excellent responses that represent the literature of the first half of the 20th century. After the Second World War, the results of the full-scale Mallarmé research that began during the war were quickly taken up by intellectuals such as Sartre, who fundamentally questioned literature against the backdrop of a sense of crisis about the extinction of humanity, and it is deepening as an unavoidable issue for each contemporary writer.

[Matsumuro Saburo]

Impact on Japan

Mallarmé was introduced to Japan in 1905 (Meiji 38) with the renowned translation of Lamentations (Sighs) by Ueda Bin and a partial translation of the poet's responses to the investigative journalist Jules Huret (1864-1915) (both included in Kaichoon), but these were generally perceived as novel literary devices or mere misinterpretations, and the path to a true understanding of Mallarmé was paved around 1919 (Taisho 8) with the isolated research and translation of Suzuki Shintaro. Even in Japan, this poet was only fully accepted after the Second World War.

[Matsumuro Saburo]

"Mallarmé Poems" translated by Suzuki Shintaro (Iwanami Bunko)" ▽ "Chikuma World Literature Series 48: Mallarmé and Others" translated by Suzuki Shintaro et al. (1974, Chikuma Shobo)" ▽ "The Crisis of Poetry, On Books, and Mystery in Literature translated by Matsumuro Saburo (included in World Criticism Series 2, 1974, Chikuma Shobo)" ▽ "Mallarmé: Poetry and Prose translated by Matsumuro Saburo (1987, Chikuma Shobo)" ▽ "Mallarmé by Georges Poulet, translated by Matsumuro Saburo (included in Studies in Human Time 2, 1977, Chikuma Shobo)" ▽ "Stephane Mallarmé by Kanno Akimasa (1985, Chuokoron-Shinsha)"

[Reference] | Afternoon of the Half-Beast God

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

Japanese:

フランス象徴詩派の師表と仰がれた詩人。3月18日、大蔵省官吏の子としてパリに生まれる。5歳のとき母を失い、母方の祖父母に養育されたが、のち寄宿学校に入り、「孤児」の境涯を体験。母の死は、1857年に夭折(ようせつ)した妹マリアの思い出とともに彼の心の深層に生涯癒(いや)されぬ傷を遺(のこ)した。12、3歳ころから幼い詩作を試み、生前発表されなかった少年時の作詩は50編を超えるが、1857年にポー、ボードレールの存在を年長の友人の導きによって知ったことが彼の生涯の進路を決定づけた。ことに1861年ボードレール『悪の華』（再版）の全容を知ってその強大な影響の下に置かれ、これを克服して独自の詩を生み出すことが当面の目標となる。1862年、年上の愛人マリー・ジェラール（マリア・ゲルハルトMaria Gerhard）と手を携えてロンドンに遁(のが)れた彼は、翌年夏マリーと結婚し、帰国後トゥルノン高等中学の英語講師に任命され、以後1871年パリに定住するまで地方高等中学の英語教師を歴任するが、苦悩と絶望と歓喜の交錯するこの8か年の歳月が彼をまったく新たな詩人に変容させた。

［松室三郎］

前期詩風

初めポーの詩観を跳躍台としてボードレールの影響を離脱し、さらにポーをも超えて独特の「天使振り(アンジェリスム)」angélismeを示すに至るが、第一次『現代高踏詩集(パルナス・コンタンポラン)』Parnasse contemporain（1866）に投じた名編「海の微風」「溜息(ためいき)」を含む初期11詩編によって詩壇に一地歩を築いたころ、彼は1864年秋に始まる長詩「エロディヤード」の創作を契機として、詩人個人にはいかんともしがたい国語との格闘、さらには対言語姿勢の大転換を促さずにはおかない詩人存在そのもののありようを、熱烈に問い続ける前人未踏の探究のさなかにあった。未完のコント「イジチュール」Igitur（1869執筆）はこの「致命的」体験の形見である。この深刻な危機体験ののち、1871年以降は前期詩風の決算である「エロディヤード（舞台）」Hérodiade（おもに1865春創作、1871発表）、『半獣神(フォーヌ)の午後』（初稿1865夏、1876完成）を公にし、また『大鴉(おおがらす)』（1875）をはじめポー詩の翻訳を次々に発表するかたわら、危機体験そのものから生まれ出たソネ（ソネット）群の推敲(すいこう)を並行的に続行、これらは1883年以降逐次発表されて、作者が生涯に二度自ら厳選し刊行した『ステファヌ・マラルメ詩集』（1887、1899）の中核となった。

［松室三郎］

後期詩風

彼自身の死生観を亡き詩人ゴーチエに仮託して歌い上げた長詩「葬(とむらい)の乾盃(かんぱい)」（1873）に始まる一連の芸術家礼賛詩群とともにマラルメ後期詩編を形成するソネ群は、詩論のオード「プローズ（デ・ゼッサントのために）」（1885）にも語られているように、いずれも語にイニシアティブを与えつつ丹念に構築された自己完結的な語の建築であり、同時に詩群の全体がことばの花の群生として「詩人の世界」を体現しつつ一国語による表現の極限を示している。1885年以降は多年の思索を結晶させた文学論が雑誌・新聞に発表され、これらは散文詩とともに『逍遙遊(デイバガシオン)』（1897）に集大成された。音楽会やカトリック教会のミサも含めて舞台芸術までを広い視野に収めつつ文芸の根本的あり方を深く洞察したこれらの散文作品（著者自身は「批評詩」と名づけた）は、現代フランス文学の直接の先駆として、ここに提起された問題の全体像がいまようやくその姿を明らかにしようとしている。

　また、最晩年の大作「骰子一擲(さいいってき)」Un coup de dés jamais n'abolira le hasard（1897）は、特殊な組版、7種類の活字を使って、詩化された内面の波動をそのまま視覚的に見開き11面の紙面上に定着した空前の試みであり、ここに詩編は「書物」という肉体を得て宇宙的な相貌(そうぼう)をとるに至った。この作品をさらに推敲し、同時に終生のテーマたる総合詩群『エロディヤードの結婚』を完成すべく精進しつつあったマラルメは、1898年9月8日午後、バルバンのセーヌ河を隔ててフォンテンブローの森に臨む別墅(べっしょ)の書斎で、喉頭(こうとう)疾患の激しい発作にみまわれた。詩人は発作の鎮まったのち「遺書」をしたため、翌朝来診した医師の面前で前日の発作を実演してにわかに絶息、そのまま56歳の生涯を閉じた。

　詩人生涯の夢であった「究極の歌(オード)」、また「世界がそのためにこそ存在する、書かるべき唯一無二の書物」は、当然にも未完に終わったとはいえ、彼の言説は、晩年彼の周囲に結集したバレリー、クローデル、ジッドら「火曜会」Les Mardis（1877年ころから徐々に形成された詩人宅での集い）のもっとも若いメンバーに深甚な衝撃を与えて、20世紀前半の文学をそれぞれに代表する優れた応答を引き出すこととなった。第二次世界大戦後は、戦中に始まる本格的なマラルメ研究の成果が人類滅亡の危機意識を背景に、文学を根源的に問い直すサルトルら知的選良によっていち早く取り上げられ、現代作家各自ののっぴきならぬ問題として深化されつつある。

［松室三郎］

日本への影響

日本へのマラルメ紹介は1905年（明治38）上田敏(びん)の名訳『嗟嘆(といき)』（『溜息(ためいき)』）ならびに探訪記者ジュール・ユーレJules Huret（1864―1915）に対する探訪での詩人の回答の部分訳（いずれも『海潮音』所収）にさかのぼるが、一般には新奇な文学意匠と受け取られるか単なる誤読の域を脱せず、真のマラルメ理解への道は1919年（大正8）前後を境に鈴木信太郎の孤立した研究・翻訳によって切り開かれた。日本でもこの詩人の本格的受容は第二次世界大戦後のことでしかない。

［松室三郎］

『鈴木信太郎訳『マラルメ詩集』（岩波文庫）』▽『鈴木信太郎他訳『筑摩世界文学大系48　マラルメ他』（1974・筑摩書房）』▽『松室三郎訳『詩の危機』『書物について』『文芸の中にある神秘』（『世界批評大系2』所収・1974・筑摩書房）』▽『松室三郎訳『マラルメ　詩と散文』（1987・筑摩書房）』▽『ジョルジュ・プーレ著、松室三郎訳『マラルメ』（『人間的時間の研究2』所収・1977・筑摩書房）』▽『菅野昭正著『ステファヌ・マラルメ』（1985・中央公論社）』

[参照項目] | 半獣神の午後

出典　小学館　日本大百科全書(ニッポニカ)日本大百科全書(ニッポニカ)について　情報 | 凡例

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